Open-Meteo
Swiss weather API that turns national weather service model data into one free-to-try JSON endpoint
Quick Overview
| Company | OpenMeteo GmbH |
|---|---|
| Category | Weather API Providers |
| Headquarters | Bürglen (UR), Switzerland |
| Founded | Not stated |
| EU Presence | Yes - Switzerland (Europe, non-EU) |
| Data Location | Not stated on the pages read |
| Open Source | Open-source server (licence not named on the pages read) |
| GDPR Compliant | Yes - states GDPR compliance where it applies |
| Self-Hosting | Yes - Docker or prebuilt Ubuntu packages, per the About page |
| Main Features | Forecast, air quality, marine, flood, geocoding and elevation APIs, 30+ weather models, historical and ensemble data on higher plans, CC-BY 4.0 data |
| Pricing | Free for non-commercial use (10,000 calls per day); paid Standard (1M calls per month), Professional (5M) and Enterprise (50M+) plans, amounts not shown on the pricing page as fetched |
| Best For | Developers who want a keyless endpoint for prototypes and a licence path to production |
| Replaces | Tomorrow.io |
Detailed Review
Where Tomorrow.io sells its own forecast layers, Open-Meteo says plainly what sits underneath: model output from services such as ECMWF, DWD, NOAA, Météo-France, KNMI, DMI, MeteoSwiss and the UK Met Office, normalised to hourly values. The best_match option picks the finest model available at the coordinates you request.
The company behind it is OpenMeteo GmbH in Bürglen, canton of Uri, with Patrick Zippenfenig named as CEO on the terms page. The site says it sets no cookies and does not track visitors.
Free tier and the move to paid
Non-commercial use is free up to 10,000 calls a day, 5,000 an hour and 600 a minute, with the data under CC-BY 4.0 and no uptime guarantee. A subscription adds a commercial licence and an API key for a dedicated customer endpoint, with the same syntax as the free tier.
Historical, climate, seasonal and ensemble APIs are listed as requiring the Professional plan or above.
Open source as an exit route
The server code is published, and the About page says users can start their own instance with Docker or Ubuntu packages. That gives a procurement answer that call-metered rivals cannot: if the hosted price changes, you can run the same API yourself.
The pricing page itself points to self-hosting as the practical route for workloads in the billions of calls.
Privacy stance
Free API logs may hold coordinates and are deleted after 90 days. For paying users, individual logs are removed after 90 days and only aggregated usage is kept.
The company calls itself an independent data controller and states GDPR compliance where it applies.
Limitations to Consider
Paid prices were not visible on the pricing page as fetched, so budget needs a call to info@open-meteo.com or a look at the live page. The free tier carries no uptime guarantee and is limited to non-commercial use. Forecasts are model output; there is no station-observation layer comparable to Meteostat or a sea-state product like Stormglass.
Who Should Use Open-Meteo
Developers and small companies that want a transparent, model-based API with a self-hosting fallback.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Keyless free access for non-commercial use
- Names every national model it ingests
- Server can be self-hosted
- No cookies or tracking on the website
- Commercial licence through a dedicated endpoint
Cons
- Free tier excludes commercial use and has no uptime guarantee
- Paid amounts not visible on the page read
- Historical and ensemble data need Professional or higher
- Licence of the server code not named on the pages read
Alternatives to Open-Meteo
Other European weather api providers worth comparing before you decide:
Stormglass
Sweden · Weather and marine API with euro plans from €19 per month
Meteomatics
Switzerland · St. Gallen API with 1,800+ parameters and 1 km Europe model
Windy API
Czech Republic · Point, map and webcam APIs from the makers of Windy.com
meteoblue
Switzerland · Basel weather APIs with a free one-year trial on registration
See all European weather api providers or compare them directly against Tomorrow.io on our alternatives page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not on the free API. The terms limit it to non-commercial use, and a paid subscription provides the commercial licence and a dedicated endpoint.
From open data released by national weather services, among them ECMWF, DWD, NOAA, Météo-France, KNMI, DMI, MeteoSwiss and the UK Met Office, according to its pricing and About pages.
No. The About page says no API key is required for the free non-commercial API.